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Tuesday, April 17, 2012

The Hunger
Games from a Jungian,
Political, and Environmental Perspective

Dennis L. Merritt, Ph.D., Jungian Analyst, Ecopsychologist

www.ecojung.com

The
movie The Hunger Games
at one level depicts the adolescent's world on steroids and at
another level relates to powerful forces stirring in America. As a
nation we are struggling to find a new identity as the myths that
have sustained us are showing their age and ineptness while the
controlling powers are expressing themselves more strongly. In
Games those controlling
forces directed by President Snow, played by Donald Sutherland, are
challenged by a powerful feminine energy in the form of sixteen year
old Katniss Everdeen, played by Jenifer Lawrence. I see Hunger Games as a allegory of current American culture as Arthur Miller's play The Crucible, about the Salem witch trials, was an allegory of McCarthyism in 1952 (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Crucible).

The Story
from an Archetypal Perspective

In
the film the rule of the archetype of the Old King as embodied by the
President is nearing its end. The King represents the dominant
features of a culture depicted in its values, attitudes, behaviors
and systems. (1) Old systems in Snow's realm are showing signs of
strain in a decadent society that has lost its soul. The ruling power
uses intimidation, deceit and diversions to maintain its position.
The Capitol is the powerhouse and center of President's domain, a
place of ultra modernity in its buildings, machines, and electronic
marvels. It is inhabited by a ruling elite of shallow people living
in luxury who are caricatures of humans with their bizarre clothing,
makeup and behaviors. This society without a heart is epitomized by
an annual event—the Hunger Games--captivating the entire culture.
The games cruel nature is symptomatic of the absence of the Queen
archetype--there is no feminine companion/counterpart to the
President. The Queen symbolizes the Eros or archetypal feminine in a
culture, the feeling values and how people relate to each other. In
the
film a primary
feminine figure is the woman who reaps the tributes from the
districts: a shallow, empty, painted woman enamored with the allure
of the games.

Outside the Capitol lie twelve poor, starving, downtrodden districts
still being punished for a rebellion over 74 years ago. Twelve is an
archetypal number associated with wholeness (twelve months, twelve
apostles). Here we have a kingdom of the haves and the have nots,
reflecting the 1% and 99% in American society. Every year a male and
a female between the ages of 12 and 18 are selected at random as
tribute (sacrifice) to represent their district in the Hunger Games.
The randomness highlights the cruel uncertainty of fate, subjecting
everyone to its fears. The games are an annual reminder of the
punishment for rebelling against the powers that be, a punishment
meted out in the form of human lives for the entertainment of the
populace and a means of maintaining a fear in both city and country
of the ruling power.

Dennis Merritt, Ph.D., is a Jungian psychoanalyst and ecopsychologist in private practice in Madison and Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He is the author of Jung, Hermes, and Ecopsychology: The Dairy Farmer's Guide to the Universe Volumes 1 - 4. Dr. Merritt is a diplomate of the C.G. Jung Institute, Zurich and also holds the following degrees: M.A. Humanistic Psychology-Clinical, Sonoma State University, California, Ph.D. Insect Pathology, University of California-Berkeley, M.S. and B.S. Entomology, University of Wisconsin-Madison. Over twenty-five years of participation in Lakota Sioux ceremonies has strongly influenced his worldview.